The present invention concerns a mass and force meter with a body, a load support that is guided parallely and vertically, a strokeless measuring system and a lever system for transmission of the load acting on the load support to the measuring system.
Such meters, also called blocked scales, are known, for instance from U.S. Pat. No. 3,423,999. When the measuring system of such meters is separated from the meter the remaining parts form a kinematic system with one degree of freedom. A strokeless measuring system is a system in which all movements permitted by the system are virtual movements. Such measuring systems can consist for instance of at least one vibrating string or a strain gauge and the necessary electronic circuitry.
The lever system transmits the load to the measuring system, the load being generally multiplied or reduced by the lever system. The pans and knives of classical lever systems which allow for large rotational movements are replaced in blocked scales by cross articulations or flat band articulations or by resilient articulations. These articulations consist of several parts and it is extremely difficult to control their resetting force.
The reduction ratio with which the load is transmitted cannot be chosen arbitrarily small, so that the absolute value of the length of the smallest lever cannot be made as small as could be desirable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mass and force meter in which the lever system is able to transmit the load to be measured with high precision and at the same time with any desired multiplication or reduction ratio without unacceptable economic burden.
It is another object of the invention to provide a lever system consisting at least partly of a single, flat plate having one of its parts tightly connected to the body of the meter.